Institutional maternal and perinatal deaths: A review of 40 low and middle income countries
Background: Understanding the magnitude and clinical causes of maternal and perinatal mortality are basic requirements for positive change. Facility-based information offers a contextualized resource for clinical and organizational quality improvement. We describe the magnitude of institutional maternal mortality, causes of death and cause-specific case fatality rates, as well as stillbirth and pre-discharge neonatal death rates. […]
What it takes: evidence from a nutrition- and gender-sensitive agriculture intervention in rural Zambia
The Realigning Agriculture for Improved Nutrition (RAIN) project was designed to address child undernutrition through a multisectoral approach which integrated agricultural diversification to improve access to nutritious foods, the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment and nutrition behaviour change communication to improve infant and young child feeding (IYCF) knowledge and practices. This paper presents […]
Adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes in adolescent pregnancies: The Global Network’s Maternal Newborn Health Registry study
Background: Adolescent girls between 15 and 19 years give birth to around 16 million babies each year, around 11% of births worldwide. We sought to determine whether adolescent mothers are at higher risk of maternal and perinatal adverse outcomes compared with mothers aged 20-24 years in a prospective, population-based observational study of newborn outcomes in […]
Local people’s views on the evidence-based skilled-maternal-care in Mfuwe, Zambia: A qualitative study
Background: There is growing demand for high quality evidence-based practice in the fight against negative maternal health outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Zambia is one of the countries that has transposed this evidence-based approach by outlawing Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and recommending exclusive skilled-care. There is division among scholars regarding the usefulness of this approach […]
Incidence of abortion-related near-miss complications in Zambia: cross-sectional study in Central, Copperbelt and Lusaka Provinces
Objectives To describe the magnitude and severity of abortion-related complications in health facilities and calculate the incidence of abortion-related near-miss complications at the population level in three provinces in Zambia, a country where abortion is legal but stigmatized. Study design We conducted a cross-sectional study in 35 district, provincial and tertiary hospitals over 5 months. […]
Developing a community driven sustainable model of maternity waiting homes for rural Zambia
Background maternity waiting homes (MWHs) are residential dwellings located near health facilities where women in the late stages of pregnancy stay to await childbirth and receive immediate postpartum services. These shelters help overcome distance and transportation barriers that prevent women from receiving timely skilled obstetric care. Objective the purpose of this study was to explore […]
The Development and Inclusion of Questions on Surgery in the 2018 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey
Background: While primary data on the unmet need for surgery in low- and middle-income countries is lacking, household surveys could provide an entry point to collect such data. We describe the first development and inclusion of questions on surgery in a nationally representative Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) in Zambia. Method: Questions regarding surgical conditions […]
Addressing the third delay in saving mothers, giving life districts in Uganda and Zambia: Ensuring adequate and appropriate facility-based maternal and perinatal health care
Background: Saving Mothers, Giving Life (SMGL) is a 5-year initiative implemented in participating districts in Uganda and Zambia that aimed to reduce deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth by targeting the 3 delays to receiving appropriate care: seeking, reaching, and receiving. Approaches to addressing the third delay included adequate health facility infrastructure, specifically sufficient equipment […]
Morbidity and mortality among a cohort of human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected and uninfected pregnant women and their infants from Malawi, Zambia, and Tanzania
Background: Morbidity and mortality patterns among pregnant women and their infants (before antiretroviral therapy was widely available) determines HIV-1 diagnostic, monitoring, and care interventions. Methods: Data from mothers and their infants enrolled in a trial of antibiotics to reduce mother-to-child- transmission of HIV-1 at 4 sub-Saharan African sites were analyzed. Women were enrolled during pregnancy […]
Quality of antenatal care predicts retention in skilled birth attendance: A multilevel analysis of 28 African countries
Background: An effective continuum of maternal care ensures that mothers receive essential health packages from pre-pregnancy to delivery, and postnatally, reducing the risk of maternal death. However, across Africa, coverage of skilled birth attendance is lower than coverage for antenatal care, indicating mothers are not retained in the continuum between antenatal care and delivery. This […]
